Hercules' Poor Arm

Manzi did some minor damage on Hercules' arm. I went in the bathroom (which may happen from time to time) and did so quickly so Manzi couldn't join me. He has continued with his love/territorialness of the bathroom, so I do my best to keep him out as much as possible.
So, often after I sneak in the bathroom, Manzi will sit outside the door pacing and trying to look underneath (it looks funny. At just the right angle he can see under the door because there is a 1/2" gap). Hercules was in an aggressive mood and ran after Manzi. Usually, both Manzi and Maui run from him when he gets aggressive (he is a tortoise, so it doesn't take much to escape him). Manzi was already mad at me for locking him out of the bathroom, so he took on Hercules and got a quick bite before Hercules could tuck in. I heard Hercules tuck in quickly, so I did get worried and hurried out. Manzi did manage to pull a small scale of Hercules' arm. It was slightly red (no blood or anything), but within 30 minutes it was back to normal color. Here is a picture:

 

My 2nd camera came defective. I am going to buy another one soon. It will come with rotation ability and 2-way sound. That will give me a second angle on the birds. Sometimes I cannot see them in the cage (one may be behind a toy, etc.) so this will help. Once I get the new camera up and running, I will give access to those interested. Manzi and Maui have been getting along great. They are no longer fighting at all in their new cage and I have been leaving them overnight together. It seems they are in agreement, although not friends. They don't seem to stress or worry about the other either.

Manzi exploring door handles

Manzi has recently been landing on my door handles. His favorite one is to the bathroom door.

I got a bit too close to Manzi with the camera. He is daring me to get closer (by puffing up from an unscary 1lb pound creature to a potential 2lb creature!).

Here is a zoomed out picture to get some perspective. Also, you might notice that Manzi can just reach the trim of the door from the handles. Fortunately, he has not tried to do any damage to it.

Manzi and Maui have been together in their new cage for a while now and are not killing each other. I think it is nearly safe to say we've been successful. After 2.5 years of effort, they are finally together in one cage.

Maui on the attack

On Sunday Maui had had enough of Manzi and went after him very aggressively. It was right after Manzi was with me for a couple of hours. He can fly, so sometimes he will stay right next to me (there are perches for him all around).
After I put Manzi back in his cage, Maui went after him. I took her out right away and gave her attention, but she went right back in the cage and attacked him. I am surprised that neither of them were hurt as they were right up against each other biting crazily. Manzi was trying to run while keeping Maui's beak at bay, but she had him cornered. I quickly separated them, but I had to leave somewhere. So I threw some newspapers down and stuck them back in their old cages.

Then, Sunday night I kept Maui right next to me scratching her and talking to her for two hours. When I put them back together, all was well again. It has been fine today too.

Maui must have wanted to reassert herself after she saw Manzi and me together for a couple of hours. I need to be careful to give her enough praise and attention so she doesn't feel that she has to fight for my favor.

I am leaving out of town soon and don't want the birds fighting. Tomorrow I am going to split up the branches in the cage so I can slide the divider between the birds. I will leave that in while I am away so I don't worry about them fighting. It will probably be okay to keep them together, but I'm not sure I want to take that risk. Plus, the girl watching them doesn't handle them, so I'm not sure she would know what to do if they got into a fight.

Still good together

Manzi and Maui are still residing somewhat peacefully together. They haven't hurt each other anymore and are often perched quite close together (12" apart). I am hoping this is permanent and I moved their old cages into my storage room. I will give it another month, then I will sell Maui's cage.

Despite their getting along, they still have spats. I noticed that it occurs when I get home. Today, when I walked in the door, Maui saw me and ran over to Manzi and knocked him off the perch. Neither screamed or anything. I think it was Maui trying to assert herself in my presence. I will try to make a better effort to show her priority. I had to leave again and when I got back, I immediately took Maui out of the cage and scratched her neck. Afterward, I did the same for Manzi. I will keep that up so Maui won't get a chance to show dominance towards Manzi.

Tomorrow we have guests coming over with a well-behaved dog. I am curious as to see how the interaction goes. I imagine that they both might puff up at the dog, but that nothing will happen.

Birds together (so far, so good)

I have been keeping the birds together in the large cage for a week now. The only injury came two days ago when it was getting late and it was dark. Both birds were hanging upside down and were doing some very angry sparring. I heard Manzi scream, which made me run to the cage (upon which I found them sparring). I didn't have a quick plan and I didn't want my hand to take their bites, so I quickly grabbed Manzi's tail to get him to turn around, then I picked his feet off the top. He was happy to be rescued. He must have wandered too close to Maui, whereupon she bit him in the nostril, causing Manzi to begin a counter attack. The bite did leave Manzi with a broken skin, some blood welling up in the area and some swelling. Now, it is healed over, but definitely still red (which it will probably be for some time). I was scared to leave them back in the cage together, but they have been fine. I check on them in the camera all the time. It seems that they just stick to themselves. By evening, they will perch on the top branch about 1' apart and preen themselves, so that is nice. They aren't too stressed for that.

The goal of this is so that both birds have more room than in their smaller cages. But, if they are too stressed and have to give each other a huge girth, then that will defeat the purpose of having them together. So far, they seem to be okay, not great. They do pay attention to where the other is in the cage and they don't come closer than 8" from each other. Hopefully they will relax. Last year when I tried this, it lasted for about a week before they started beating each other up. It has been a week, so hopefully it doesn't go down from here.

Another topic: I had a rotisserie chicken on Friday. The birds love chicken, so I gave them the scraps (bones, cartilage, etc.). Manzi was in the way of the food dish and wouldn't move so I put the scraps in having to brush past him. The scraps were so greasy, so now he has a big grease mark on his entire right wing. I was hoping he would preen it off quickly, but after an hour I wrapped him in a towel to get out some of the grease and bits of chicken. Today I put him in the shower and he is looking much better, but his wing may be dark for some time.